


Uncomfortable Truths

by Telaryn



Series: The Tale of Eliot Spencer and Ellen Harvelle [14]
Category: Leverage, Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Ending Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Gen, Secret Identity, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-16
Updated: 2012-09-16
Packaged: 2017-11-14 09:58:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot's past has found him again, but he realizes that he's tied himself to Ellen more deeply than he would have ever imagined possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncomfortable Truths

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://angst-bingo.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://angst-bingo.livejournal.com/)**angst_bingo** , for the prompt "lost".

  
_”Where the hell have you been, man? Not a peep since that shapeshifter gig in Arizona.”_

Eliot knew he’d been stupid to think it could last – that he could stay off the grid forever. Now that he’d been spotted, word would travel. And even if his clients kept their distance, his enemies wouldn’t. He had to go.

Soon.

“Those are some really loud thoughts you’re thinking.” Ellen had emerged from the house while he’d been lost in thought. Eliot was unnerved to realize he had no idea how long she’d been watching him. “Care to share?”

She joined him at the porch rail, handing over one of the two beers she’d been carrying in her left hand. Eliot kissed her on the cheek, then opened his bottle and took a long drink. It was the good stuff – enough alcohol to calm his nerves instead of being little better than water. Ellen turned, putting her back to the rail.

“I’m guessin’ this has something to do with that gentleman you spoke to today?”

Even though the idea of Raylan Jeffreys being a “gentleman” was amusing on its face, Eliot couldn’t muster up any sort of a smile in response. _She’s gonna wait you out._ He hadn’t been with Ellen long, but he was as sure of that fact as anything in his life right now.

Finally he sighed. “There’s a lot I haven’t told you.”

Ellen shrugged. “Don’t remember asking.” Her expression hardened, however. “Go on.”

Even saying the words raised bile in his throat. Things had been so good between them; Eliot could already feel it slipping out of his grasp, and there was nothing he could honorably do to stop it. “The man that called me out in town today’s named Raylan Jeffreys. He’s like me – part time mercenary, part time retrieval specialist, does some hunting on the side. He’s going to talk – he going to tell people where I am, where I’ve been. Word’s gonna get around.”

Ellen was quiet at first – Eliot could see her rolling the information through her mind, sifting it into its proper order. Finally she said, “If you’re looking for me to come up with a reason for you to stay, you should know better. I don’t work that way.” An edge of anger was creeping into her voice, making it sharp in the stillness. “ _We_ don’t work that way.”

“Ellen,” he sighed, “you don’t know what I’ve done. You don’t know the kind of people who are going to come looking for me.”

Snorting with laughter, Ellen rolled her eyes. “Eliot Spencer, don’t be a jackass. Who do you think you’re talking to? I had Ash check you out the first day you were in my life. I know all about your past. I know what you’ve done and what the people you call your enemies are likely to do.”

The possibility that she might know even a tenth of the truth about him and have taken him into her life anyway was something he wasn’t prepared to deal with. “You’re an idiot then,” he said. “Or Ash didn’t give you the whole story. Otherwise you should…you _would_ have sent me packing a long time ago.”

Instead of getting angrier Ellen went quiet, watching him as she drank her beer. “Why’d you stay?” she asked finally. “You had to know this was going to happen. Why didn’t you leave weeks ago – when it would have been easier on both of us?”

Every instinct in him was screaming at him to lie to her. She was right – he’d screwed up by staying. Even if she hadn’t checked him out, the responsibility was _his_ to do what he could to make sure she wasn’t endangered by his continuing presence – not hers to force him to do his duty. “I lied to myself,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave you, so I tried to pretend I could make it work somehow.”

“Why didn’t you want to leave?”

Their eyes met. Eliot’s chest tightened with an unfamiliar mixture of fear and pain – he suddenly knew what she wanted from him, and it was harder than he’d expected to say the words out loud. “Because I fell in love with you.”

She was like a statue in the stillness. Eliot hardly dared to breathe – he couldn’t believe he’d said the words, and he was terrified to see what she would do with the information. _It doesn’t change anything. You can’t stay here._

In the end, Ellen was the one to break the spell. With a small sigh, she set her half-empty bottle on the porch rail and took his hand. “Come to bed.”

He waited for her to say something else – hell, anything else – but she just looked at him expectantly. “Ellen…” he began, but she shook her head.

“We’re not gonna talk about this,” she said. “You’re going to come to bed with me, and I’m going to make sure when you leave here in the morning that you are good and exhausted.” She squeezed his hand, and he could see the first hint of tears in her eyes.

“And when you leave, you’re going to know that you have a place to come home to. A place where somebody loves you, and where you will always belong.”


End file.
